"Memory is the faculty of the mind by which data or information is encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. It is the retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future action."
The processes involved in the acquisition, storage, and retrieval of information.
Types of memory: This covers the different categories of memory, such as short-term, long-term, and working memory, and their unique features.
Memory formation: This involves the process of creating memories, including encoding, consolidation, and retrieval.
Factors influencing memory: This topic covers factors that can impact memory, such as age, emotions, and context.
Memory disorders: This encompasses disorders that can affect memory performance, such as amnesia, Alzheimer's disease, and traumatic brain injury.
Neuroanatomy of memory: This covers the brain regions involved in memory processing, such as the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex.
Memory measurement: This involves the various techniques used to measure memory abilities, such as recall, recognition, and reaction time.
Memory improvement strategies: This involves methods used to enhance memory performance, such as mnemonic techniques and repetition.
Memory biases: This covers the various biases that can affect memory retrieval, such as confirmation bias and hindsight bias.
Memory across the lifespan: This encompasses how memory abilities change over time, from infancy to old age.
Cultural variations in memory: This topic covers how memory is influenced by cultural factors, such as language and values.
Sensory Memory: A very brief memory system that holds sensory information in its original form for a very short time (a few milliseconds to a few seconds).
Short-term Memory: Also called working memory, it holds a limited amount of information for a short period of time (several seconds to a minute).
Long-term Memory: The storehouse of information that has been encoded and consolidated from short-term memory. It can last from a few days to a lifetime.
Explicit Memory: Also called declarative memory, it is the memory of facts and events that can be consciously recollected and verbally described.
Implicit Memory: Also called non-declarative memory, it is the memory that is expressed through performance rather than recollection, such as motor skills, habits, and classical conditioning.
Episodic Memory: A type of explicit memory that stores personal experiences and events in time, along with contextual details and emotions.
Semantic Memory: A type of explicit memory that stores general knowledge and concepts that are independent of personal experiences.
Procedural Memory: A type of implicit memory that stores motor and cognitive skills, such as riding a bike or reading.
Priming: The phenomenon in which exposure to a stimulus enhances the processing or recognition of another stimulus that is related to it, even if the relationship is not obvious.
Flashbulb Memory: A vivid, emotional, and highly detailed memory of a significant event that has great personal, cultural, or historical importance.
Source Memory: A type of memory that refers to the ability to remember the origin or context of a piece of information, such as the source of a news story.
Metamemory: The knowledge and awareness of one's own memory processes and strategies, such as the ability to monitor, evaluate, and regulate memory performance.
Prospective Memory: The ability to remember to perform a planned action or intention in the future, such as remembering to attend a meeting or take medication.
Autobiographical Memory: A complex blend of episodic and semantic memory that forms a person's life story, identity, and self-concept.
Collective Memory: The shared memory of a group or culture that reflects their common history, values, and beliefs, and plays a role in shaping their identity and social interactions.
"If past events could not be remembered, it would be impossible for language, relationships, or personal identity to develop."
"Memory loss is usually described as forgetfulness or amnesia."
"Memory is often understood as an informational processing system with explicit and implicit functioning that is made up of a sensory processor, short-term (or working) memory, and long-term memory."
"The sensory processor allows information from the outside world to be sensed in the form of chemical and physical stimuli and attended to various levels of focus and intent."
"Working memory serves as an encoding and retrieval processor. Information in the form of stimuli is encoded in accordance with explicit or implicit functions by the working memory processor."
"Finally, the function of long-term memory is to store through various categorical models or systems."
"Declarative, or explicit, memory is the conscious storage and recollection of data."
"Under declarative memory resides semantic and episodic memory. Semantic memory refers to memory that is encoded with specific meaning. Meanwhile, episodic memory refers to information that is encoded along a spatial and temporal plane."
"Non-declarative, or implicit, memory is the unconscious storage and recollection of information."
"An example of a non-declarative process would be the unconscious learning or retrieval of information by way of procedural memory, or a priming phenomenon."
"Priming is the process of subliminally arousing specific responses from memory and shows that not all memory is consciously activated, whereas procedural memory is the slow and gradual learning of skills that often occurs without conscious attention to learning."
"Memory is not a perfect processor, and is affected by many factors."
"Pain, for example, has been identified as a physical condition that impairs memory."
"The amount of attention given new stimuli can diminish the amount of information that becomes encoded for storage."
"Also, the storage process can become corrupted by physical damage to areas of the brain that are associated with memory storage, such as the hippocampus."
"Finally, the retrieval of information from long-term memory can be disrupted because of decay within long-term memory."
"Normal functioning, decay over time, and brain damage all affect the accuracy and capacity of the memory."